ben’s big noughties list
Like all massive nerds and men, I like a good list. So I’ve spent literally hours compiling my favourite 200 tracks of the decade, while my body cries out unheeded for post-Christmas exercise. It’s after the jump if you’re interested, but first here’s a few downloads of tunes from it that haven’t been featured on any list I’ve seen, but should have been.
First this, from Tortoise. The inquisitive child of a riff, the porno-soundtrack rhythm guitar, the splattering drums, the hip hop breakdown – it’s all perfect.
Next is this hugely underrated bit of driving microhouse (is that still a term?), with lupine howling and precambrian utterances coming from a boat off San Antonio.
Black Dice – Smiling Off (Luomo remix)
Copied in beefy 320kbps quality from the 7″ is Hot Chip’s alternate take on “Boy from School”, with Morodery undulations, frantic New Order guitars and a gutpunching bass drop after the breakdown.
Hot Chip – Boy From School (Maida Vale version)
One of the greatest recommendations I ever received from John Peel is this from Laura Cantrell - playing from a prep-kitchen radio, this country ballad had a melody and elegantly resigned sorrow that left me with eyes moister than any onions could provoke.
Brooding clouds, Paul Van Dyk cheese stabs, IDM clattering, and, oh yes, a sax solo freakout running through the whole thing. Fake tan and afrocentric beards collide with demented results.
Laurent Garnier – The Man With The Red Face
Ty is tainted somewhat by the dread hand of the backpacker hip hop fan, which does him a major disservice. Two streams of consciousness rage through a weed fug, with moist-eyed overdriven guitar soloing bleeding its heart everywhere.
And so here’s the countdown (or rather countup), with only one track per artist for variety’s sake…
Filed under old | Tags: ben beaumont-thomas, black dice, hot chip, laura cantrell, laurent garnier, list, luomo, noughties, play it as it lays, tortoise, ty | Comment (1)
